Pelosi Rages After Two Congressmen, Both Veterans, Go See Afghanistan Debacle Without Her Permission
Irked that members of Congress wanted the truth about the desperate situation in Kabul, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave all House members a stern talking-to on the subject of seeing the carnage and chaos first-hand instead of swallowing the Biden administration’s party line.
“Member travel to the Afghanistan and the surrounding countries would unnecessarily divert needed resources from the priority mission of safely and expeditiously evacuating [Americans] and Afghans at risk from Afghanistan,” Pelosi scolded in a news release.
Pelosi went on the say Biden appointees will give Congress all the information they ought to know.
The House speaker’s chastisement followed a revelation from Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Republican Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan that the two Iraq War veterans made an unannounced trip to Kabul to see the situation there without the Biden administration’s rosy filter.
Pelosi scolded them for wanting to “freelance on their own,” according to Fox News.
People are standing knee deep in the sewage water with papers to get inside Kabul airport. Between where are the Americans ? Biden admin said this is the best evacuation ever in the US history. pic.twitter.com/4GET4vsvmW
— ماك?מאק (@beingrealmac) August 25, 2021
Moulton and Meijer issued a joint statement after their return.
“America has a moral obligation to our citizens and loyal allies, and we must make sure that obligation is being kept. Like many veterans, we have spent the last few weeks working without sleep to try to get as many people as we could through the gates and to safety,” the statement said.
“As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch. There is no place in the world right now where oversight matters more. We conducted this visit in secret, speaking about it only after our departure, to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground, and because we were there to gather information, not to grandstand.”
They noted they “left on a plane with empty seats, seated in crew-only seats to ensure that nobody who needed a seat would lose one because of our presence.”
Today with @RepMeijer I visited Kabul airport to conduct oversight on the evacuation.
Witnessing our young Marines and soldiers at the gates, navigating a confluence of humanity as raw and visceral as the world has ever seen, was indescribable. pic.twitter.com/bWGQh1iw2c
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) August 25, 2021
The congressmen praised the work of the military.
“Washington should be ashamed of the position we put our service members in, but they represent the best in America. These men and women have been run ragged and are still running strong. Their empathy and dedication to duty are truly inspiring. The acts of heroism and selflessness we witnessed at [Hamid Karzai International Airport] make America proud,” they said.
Their statement closed with an admission of defeat.
“We came into this visit wanting, like most veterans, to push the president to extend the August 31st deadline,” they said. “After talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it is obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won’t get everyone out on time, even by September 11.”
Afghans gathered near Kabul airport said they faced miserable conditions as thousands wait to flee the country https://t.co/KczQEM4qZ1 pic.twitter.com/Aa0eHtNkl8
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 25, 2021
“Sadly and frustratingly, getting our people out depends on maintaining the current, bizarre relationship with the Taliban,” the statement said.
“In the coming days, we will have more to share with our colleagues and the American people about what we learned, but after meeting with Marines, soldiers, and dedicated State Department officials on the ground — we want the world to know first and foremost that we have never been prouder to be Americans.”
As of Wednesday, there were 10,000 people at the Kabul airport trying to flee Afghanistan, according to The Guardian.
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